Glossary
This page contains a list of terms and definitions that are commonly found when discussing and playing World of Warcraft PvP.
General Gameplay Terms[edit]
A[edit]
- Abilities
- Refers to a specialisation's unique set of skills.
- AoE
- Area of Effect. Refers to the size of the area of a spell or attack.
B[edit]
- Buff
- A beneficial status effect placed on a player.
- Build
- Refers to a player's ability choices.
- Burst
- Refers to high damage dealt very quickly. Same as nuke.
C[edit]
- CC
- Crowd Control. Any attack that interferes with a player's ability to control their movement.
- CD
- Cooldown. The time it takes for a spell to be available again after being used. "It's on CD." should usually be interpreted as, "Hold on, the spell I need isn't up yet." Also, you might see something like, "Bladestorm cd 20" which means, "My Bladestorm is still cooling for about 20 more seconds."
- Crit
- Critical Strike. A chance to deal increased damage on hit.
D[edit]
- Debuff
- A detrimental status effect placed on a player. The opposite of a buff.
- DoT
- Damage over time. Refers to an attack that deals damage over certain time intervals.
- DPS
- Damage per second.
E[edit]
F[edit]
- Focus
- Means to concentrate all attacks on a specific target (I.E "Focus priest" means that the priest should be the priority target).
G[edit]
H[edit]
- Health / HP
- Hit Points.
I[edit]
J[edit]
K[edit]
- Kite / Kiting
- The act of attacking while simultaneously avoiding an enemy.
L[edit]
- LoS
- Line of Sight. Often refers to the act of avoiding an attack by moving out of an enemy's line of sight.
M[edit]
- Mana
- Mana Points. A resource used by many classes to cast spells and use abilties.
- Melee DPS
- A specialisation that primarily deals damage up close.
- Meta
- The current trend that is considered the optimal way to play the game. This always changes over time, and is affected by the community.
N[edit]
- Nuke
- Refers to high damage dealt very quickly. Same as burst.
O[edit]
- OOM
- Out of mana.
P[edit]
- Passive
- An ability that is always on.
- Patch
- An update to World of Warcraft. Patches generally affect class balance.
- Proc
- Shorthand for "Programmed Random Occurrence." It refers to when a chance based effect activates.
Q[edit]
- A crying emote sometimes used in game chats.
R[edit]
- Radius
- A circle indicating the area of effect or the range of an ability.
- Range
- The distance to a target, or the maximum effect distance of an ability.
- Ranged DPS
- A specialisation that primarily deals damage from a distance.
- RNG
- Random Number Generation. Used for chance based effects.
S[edit]
- Silence
- An attack that prevents an enemy from casting spells.
- Slow
- An effect that reduces movement speed.
- Spam
- Spamming your attacks or spells is the act of repeatedly using certain attacks or spells. For example, "spam Healing Wave" means to cast Healing Wave every time the attack is available.
- Spec
- Specialisation. This can also refer to a specific talent build within a specialisation.
T[edit]
- Tank / Tank
- A durable specialisation that can last longer in fights. Not particularly popular in PvP.
- TBA
- To Be Announced. Information that has yet to be announced.
- TBD
- To Be Determined. Information that has yet to be determined.